It is said that the king did not deign even to read this epistle. In 1536 Calvin was appointed pastor of a church, and professor of a theological school, in Geneva. His voluminous writings continued to attract the attention of all Europe, and the French Protestants generally took the name of Calvinists. The amount of labor performed by Calvin seems almost incredible. He preached daily, delivered theological lectures three times a week, and attended all the meetings of the Consistory of the Association of Ministers, and was the leading mind in the councils. He was continually consulted for advice upon questions of law and theology. He issued a vast number of pamphlets in defence of his opinions, commentaries on the Bible, and maintained a very extensive correspondence with distinguished men all over Europe. Besides his numerous printed sermons, he left in the library of Geneva two thousand and twenty-five in manuscript.[207] The burning of Michael Servetus at the stake for heresy is often urged as an irreparable blot upon the character of Calvin. Candid men will attribute much of the intolerance of individuals in those days to the spirit of the times. Speaking upon this subject, M. G. de Félice says very judiciously,―― “The execution of Michael Servetus has furnished the subject of a disputation constantly renewed. An able historian of our day, M. Mignet, has just devoted a long and learned dissertation to it. It would lead us entirely beyond our plan to enter into these details. 1. Servetus was not an ordinary heretic. He was a bold pantheist, and outraged the dogma of all Christian communions by saying that God in three persons was a Cerberus,――a monster with three heads. 2. He had already been condemned to death by the Catholic doctors at Vienna, in Dauphiny. 3. The affair was judged, not by Calvin, but by the magistrates of Geneva; and, if it is objected that his advice must have influenced their decision, it is necessary to recollect that the councils of the other reformed cantons of Switzerland approved the sentence with a unanimous voice. 4. It was, in fine, of the highest interest for the Reformation to separate distinctly its cause from that of such an unbeliever as Servetus. The Catholic Church, which in our day accuses Calvin of having participated in his condemnation, much more would have accused him in the sixteenth century with having solicited his acquittal.”[208] Naturally, Calvin was impatient and irascible. In one of his letters to Bucer, he writes,―― “I have no harder battles against my sins, which are great and numerous, than those in which I seek to conquer my impatience. I have not yet gained the mastery over this raging beast.”